Catholic Churches of NCC includes: Saint Patrick Parish Seneca WI; Saint Philip Parish Rolling Ground WI; Saint Mary Parish Gays Mills WI; St James Cemetery Rising Sun WI; Kneeland Cemetery Seneca WI catholicchurchesofncc.com

4^th Sunday in Advent and Christmas                     

December 21^st, 2025

St. Mary, St. Patrick, St. Philip Parishes

Mail address for all three parishes:      PO Box 35, Seneca WI 54654

Website: https://www.catholicchurchesofncc.com

Confessions: Normally, 30 minutes before every

Mass and by appointment.

Normal Monthly Eucharistic Adoration:

St. Patrick: First Friday after the 8:30 AM Mass

St. Philip: First Sunday after the 10:30 AM Mass

Mass Intentions This Week

Pastor: Fr. Tom Huff –Rectory 608-734-3252 frtomhuff@gmail.com

Bookkeeper, Bulletin, Mass Intentions: Kevin Murray – 608-391-0434 secretary@ncc.diolcparish.org

Membership: Yvonne Hady -- 608 485-2109 hadyy@mwt.net

New Bulletin Information Deadline: Mondays at 6:00 PM.

The Bulletin is posted on our website at: https://www.catholicchurchesofncc.com/bulletins

UPCOMING PARISH EVENTS

Christmas Masses

Christmas Eve:                                                                      Christmas Day:

4pm - St. Philip (Monsignor Gorman)                                  9am - St. Patrick (Fr. Tom)

4pm - St. Patrick (Father Sam Martin)                                10am - St. Philip (Monsignor Gorman)

6pm - St. Mary (Fr. Tom)

Mother of God Masses

7:00pm Wednesday, December 31^st – (Vigil Mass) St. Mary (Fr. Tom)

8:30am Thursday, January 1^st - St. Patrick (Fr. Tom)

10:30 am Thursday, January 1^st - St. Philip (Monsignor Gorman)

Adult Faith Study at St. Mary December 23^rd canceled

St. Patrick’s Announcements:

CHRISTMAS FLOWER SIGN-UP: The Arts and Environment team invites you to sign up for Christmas flowers after mass for the next two weeks, December 13 & 14 and December 20 & 21. Sign up will be in the back of the church and the cost is $20. (Please make checks payable to St. Patrick's Catholic Church. ) We thank you in advance for supporting this ministry by celebrating, honoring, or remembering family and friends during this Christmas season. If you miss sign up please give one of us a call and we will add you to the list. Linda Monehen - 608-874-4430, Marilyn Palmer - 608-306-3920, Nancy Ostrander - 608-874-4900, Priscella Kelley 608-874-4232.

St. Philip Announcements:

St. Philip Candles: Contact Bonnie Murphy. The cost is $5 per candle.

The Marian Candle this week is for the soul of Sharon Barney by George Read.

Food Pantry items are needed. Please leave any gift at the rear of the Church.

Church Christmas Decorating will be on Monday December 22^nd, at 1:00pm call Amy Murphy with any questions.

St. Mary Announcements:

Rosary – 30 minutes before Mass -- St. Mary’s Church is open each day from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm (winter hours). You are welcome to stop in to pray and/or light a candle for your special intention.

First Sunday Potluck brunch after Mass each first Sunday of the month. All are welcome, dish to share is appreciated, but not required. Next potluck is Sunday, Dec. 7^th.

Food Pantry Donations can be left in the basket in the rear of the Church.

Tri-Parish Announcements:

We need more Mass Intentions for All Parishes

Youth Envelopes: If the youth members of our parish would like their own youth envelopes for giving to the Church let us know. Youth envelopes are available. Please contact Kevin if you are interested.

Other Announcements:

Income from Last Week

2026 Donation Envelopes are available now. If you do not receive envelopes currently and would like to, please contact Kevin Murray 608-391-0434 secretary@ncc.diolcparish.org

From the Priest’s Corner:  Saint Joseph, our Model of Faith

In this Fourth Sunday of Advent, we read about how Mary was found with child, during the period of time that she and Joseph were betrothed to each other, but had not as yet lived together. According to ancient Jewish marriage custom, when a couple betrothed themselves to each other they were considered legally married. However, the woman would remain living with her parents for some months while provisions were gathered for the seven days of celebration with family and friends that followed a public marriage ceremony. A betrothal was considered so binding that one had to obtain a divorce to be released from it.

Joseph, a devout Jew, obedient to the will of God, was awaiting the fulfillment of the promise of the Messiah, as were the rest of the faithful Jews. He had known Mary to be an extraordinary woman of faith, a woman who radiated holiness, a unique holiness unlike any other. Thus, it is unlikely that Joseph doubted the fidelity of Mary. He believed that she was with child through an act of God, as the special sign foretold by the prophet Isaiah, which we read in the first reading. His response to this fact was not one of doubt; rather, Joseph considered himself unworthy to be part of this miraculous event, and so he decided to divorce Mary quietly.

However, he received a message from the Archangel Gabriel in a dream, confirming that Mary's Child was indeed the Son of God and that Joseph was to be an important part of this holy family. He was to be the faithful husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus. When Joseph awoke, he trusted in the message of the archangel and took Mary his wife into his home. He accepted the mission entrusted to him by God, because of his deep faith and his unwavering trust.

During these last days of Advent, may God grant us, like Saint Joseph, an unwavering faith. And as we approach the joyful celebration of the birthday of Jesus, may He grant us the grace to trust more fully in our Heavenly Father who loves us more than we could ever imagine.

Tri-Parish Prayer List – We want to pray for the ill and others in our parishes who need ongoing prayer. To be placed on or to place someone on our prayer list, please call: Sue Peterson 608-735-4865, Bonnie Murphy 608-386-4954, or Ica Boylen 608-734-3287.

Dear Fellow Parishioners, if you are able, please support Regina Turner (from St. Mary's Parish) and other college Catholic FOCUS Missionaries to be able to attend a conference in Denver, CO the first week of January. About 20,000 Catholic college students and adults attend this conference. If you would like to help:

1. Please go to this link: https://focus.org/campus/university-of-mary/

2. Click on “DONATE TO CAMPUS”

3. Select or enter your donation amount.

4. Enter your billing and payment information and submit your gift! Thank you!

What is the meaning of Christmas?

By Russell Shaw

For many people, Christmas means big, jovial meals with family and friends, singing seasonal hymns in church, exchanging gifts. And for some generous souls, it also means serving meals to the poor or visiting lonely people in hospitals or nursing homes.

Those are all good answers, I think—all those things really are a welcome part of Christmas. But for a deeper take on the matter, let’s turn to two towering religious thinkers and masters of rhetoric, Saint Augustine and Saint John Henry Newman.

For both of them, the coming of Jesus is directly linked to the doctrine of original sin—that “terrible aboriginal calamity,” Newman calls it, which brought about humanity’s state of alienation from God and continues to serve as breeding ground of personal sins. The Incarnation, which we celebrate at Christmas, is God’s chosen means of undoing this terrible damage through the redemptive, grace-giving life of Jesus Christ.

Against this background, Augustine in his Christmas homilies enjoys marshaling paradoxes to illustrate “the humility of God.” He therefore speaks of the newborn Savior as, “unspeakably wise, wisely speechless as an infant; filling the world, lying in a manger; so great in the form of God, so small in the form of a servant, in such a way that neither the greatness was diminished by the smallness, nor the smallness overwhelmed by the greatness.”

And to what end? Here is Augustine’s answer: “Unless he had a human birth, we would never attain to the divine rebirth; he was born that we might be reborn….His mother bore him in her womb; let us bear him in our hearts. The virgin was big with the incarnation of Christ; let our bosoms grow big with the faith of Christ. She gave birth to the Savior; let us give birth to praise. We mustn’t be barren; our souls must be fruitful with God.”

Writing fourteen centuries later, John Henry Newman offers much the same account of Christmas in his own inimitable fashion. After the fall, he points out, the Second Person of the Trinity “might have remained in the glory which he had with the Father before the world was. But that unsearchable Love, which showed itself in our original creation, rested not content with a frustrated work, but brought him down again from His Father’s bosom to do his will and repair the evil which sin had caused.”

The first Christmas wasn’t the end, though, but the beginning, inasmuch as it remains for us to complete the work of redemption in ourselves. Here’s Newman again: “The first grace is faith, the last is love; first comes zeal, afterwards comes loving-kindness; first comes humiliation, then comes peace; first comes diligence, then comes resignation. May we learn to mature all graces in us—fearing and trembling, watching and repenting because Christ is coming; joyful, thankful and careless of the future because he is come.”

So Christmas most certainly does mean big, happy family dinners, familiar carols and hymns, and gift-giving, along with acts of kindness performed for the needy and the sad. Pile on the Christmas trees, the holiday wreaths, the familiar music, and enjoy every blessed bit of it. But in the midst of it all, let’s keep the eyes of our hearts fixed on that tiny figure in the manger. In the end, nothing we do would count for very much if he hadn’t come to celebrate that first Christmas with us.

A Blessed Christmas To All!